Ahobilam is in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh. The principle deity in the Temple here is Lord Narasimha an abode of Lord Vishnu.Usually Ahobilam means lower Ahobilam. Upper Ahobilam is 9 km from lower Ahobilam.
The Temple in Lower Ahobilam is a gigantic one with lot of art work on rock, which is really a feast for eyes.
Altogether there are nine Narasimha Temples in Ahobilam area. They are called Nava Narasimha Temples.
Ahobila Narasimha Temple:
Upon alighting at Upper Ahobilam, instantly a tiny, beautiful "U" shaped water fall attracted our attention. After a flight of steps along the dormitories Ahobila Narasimha Temple will be visible between two hills. Left side hill was more scenic with waterfalls. The right side hill was cut for some extent to make a flat area and the Temple was constructed in that place. At the left side of the ground there is a stream which is making the "U" shaped fall.
We first had darshan of Lord Ahobila Narasimha. To the left of the temple along the stream, there is a way, which leads to the back side of the Temple. Here the path bifurcates. The straight one from here goes to Varaha Narasimha Temple along the stream. The path to the right that goes from back side of the temple goes to Pavana Narasimha Temple, which is 7 km from here. On the right side path there is only one Temple, Pavana Narasimha, but on the left side hill along the stream, there are Varaha, Jwala and Malola Narasimha Temples. So after visiting Pavana, we have to come back all the way and visit the other three Temples on the left side. All together there are five Temples in this area.
Pavana Narasimha:
We opted to visit Pavana Narasimha Temple first. Initially we cleared so many steps and then we walked on a well marked road. Not only this but path to every Temple is well marked. Malola Narasimha witch was seen in the dense vegetation on the slope of opposite hill was superb. This entire stretch of 7 km goes under the shade. Surprisingly, Tamil devotees were high in number than Andhrites. We noticed only our batch were the local state people going to Pavana. Pavana Narasimha temple is in the midst of green hills.It has another route which can be accessed from Lower Ahobilam on motor vehicles. It is a whopping 25 km kaccha road. Had darshan of The Lord and came back on the same way.
Varaha Narasimha:
From the point where we took left from the back of the Ahobila Narasimha, go straight along the stream to reach Varaha Narasimha. Visited the Temple and went on crossing a bridge on the stream to reach Jwala, then Malola. Here there is a path just before Varaha to reach Malola first and then to Jwala depending on your choice.
Jwala Narasimha Temple:
We again crossed the stream after the bridge and went along with it for a while, which is very scenic. Walk itself was a pleasure here. Soon we saw a bridge across the stream and went up. From here path was continuously up hill made beside the hill slope and going round along a gorge. The gorge is exactly " ? " shaped. Now Jwala Narasimha Temple was exactly in our opposite on the other side of the gorge. In between there is a waterfall. Devotees were soaking in water when they were crossing it. When we crossed the waterfall, Sun was in such a position created a rainbow on the splashed droplets of water that jumped on the rocks. Devotees had a whale of a time at the waterfall. Had darshan of Lord and came down to the bridge area. This is the junction point. Devotees coming from Malola and Varaha meet here. Here our guide showed us Fierce Pillar (Ugra Sthambham) beside the waterfall on top the hill, which was believed to be the Mythological Pillar from where Lord Narasimha emerged, to kill Hiranyakasipa, the demon king. It can be accessed from the waterfall area. We didn't go there. We were on our way to Malola Narasimha Temple.
Malola Narasimha Temple:
From the bridge area the path is stepped at some stretches but a pleasant one. There are names to the faces of the hills in our opposite direction. Guide explained why they got those names. After visiting the Lord we headed to Ahobila Narasimha. Thus we visited five of the Temples. Had a sumptuous lunch at a dormitory and began going down to visit other Temples.
Karanja, Chatravata and Yogananda Narasimha Temples:
All these are accessible by vehicle during the ride to Lower Ahobilam. But Bhargava Narasimha Temple which we missed to see is at half an hour distance from Lower Ahobilam Temple in the forest. Bhargava closes at 5 in the evening. We reached lower Ahobilam at 6, so it didn't happened for us to visit.
We made all this in one day. Had we reached Upper Ahobilam before six in the morning, we would have visited Bhargava Narasimha Temple also.
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